short sweet, and respectig the streak. Basically, long night with family
upheaval, nothing major in the grand scheme of things except for the usual
madness.

Not the immediate family, though, just an aunt whose major source of
entertainment these days is terrifying her healthcare folks. Oy.

Such is life, occasionally. Any rate, part 4 of Opening Bid is up below for
your pleasure. Enjoy!

Still playing, still pushing the words on "Opening Bid", as you can see below
with part 3 now up.

If you're keeping score, my word goals are about 1000 daily, right now.
Part of that's just ramping up in the new year; part of that's being a little
unsure of schedule at the moment.

I've gone through what I'd call a phase transition in the latter part of
2017. Basically, from what I glean reading other writer blogs, I'm in the
middle of one of those occasional transitions where I'm figuring out how my
mind wants to work at the moment, to keep playing and having fun while I'm
doing it. And, in the mundane sense, making sure I don't wreck my wrists
doing it.

I write a fair amount during the day job, between programming and the
non-fiction writing part of that gig, so I'm a little leary of how I approach
my daily word count. One of my goals at the moment is getting up to 2000/day,
consistently. If you read far enough back in my posts, you'll see I've spent
some time working through this part of writing.

That's the nuts and bolts part of the thing.

What you're really after is what's gonna happen to Ernie? And why does she
want Leon involved in this?

I don't know. Not yet. You and me, (looks around), let's us find out together,
why don't we?

But. I think Ernie's no pushover. I'm coming to respect and like the guy a
great deal. He's got a tough road ahead of him, though. I hope he's got what
it takes to make it through to the other side.

Ok, a bit of authorial break here: I'm playing. Opening Bid, the story that's
going up piece by piece, is an experiment in serialized storytelling. I'm
having a fun time already, and we're only two days in.

Fair warning, at this time I don't anticipate this particular chapter going
on for more than the length of a good short story.

On the other hand, I've had stories get away from on occasion, so there may
be no point to all this, other than I hope you have some fun with me, dear
reader.

I shoulda oughta know'd better.

Not that I'm gonna wade into the mess anymore. There's no point arguing with
people when they refuse to read. One thing I'd point out to the
endless chatter of "but they're just doing what a human being can do" or
"it's on the web page, they're just picking it up".

Hey, just 'cause you can walk up and look through my window while I've got
the blinds open doesn't make it ok to do so. Same thing if you're listening
over the fence to me and my friends 'cause we're out drinking beer and
bbq'ing on the back porch. The fact that you can do something does not imply
that you're ethically in the right to do something.

This idea that business rules are different than personal rules may ultimately
be satisfying to someone who believes that they must get ahead at all costs,
but it definitely doesn't make a person who acts that way or believes this is
the way to act in business a trustworthy partner.

And there are few things in life more troublesome than an untrustworthy
business partner.

That probably applies to a lot of things in life, but as a writer, I can't
let that get in my way. It's too depressing to contemplate.

Though, I do have an idea floating around for a story.

And that would indeed make the mess of the data acquisition worth something,
at least to me. And that ain't nothing.

Let's face it, a good story, and the time to tell it, is the proverbial pearl
without price.

You dear reader, unfortunately, are going to have to wait a few days. I'm in
the middle of a different story, and it's just *that* close to finish. There's
a detective, and a body, and a killer, and the one is about to meet the other
at last...

(ETA: I don't mean that *you*, dear reader, misunderstood my poor scribblings. You are that most
delightful person, a reader of perspective and wisdom (and I'll stop with the flattery). What I mean
specifically is that I made the mistake of reading the first few kneejerk reactions/comments that
floated up where one of my posts got linked to in another forum. I know better, but sometimes, the
will is weak...)

Here's a little story, to scare you (if you're the worrier type) or maybe
make you laugh (hi, auditor!).

Let's say I have a banner year, and I sell a book (hey, it could happen. It's
a story!).

Of course, it's only a single book, and worse it's to my cousin Joe in East
Elbow.

That's cousin Josephine. Cousin Joseph lives in West Elbow, not East Elbow.
They're forever driving back and forth, trading mail with each other. It's
a source of mild family friction (them) and hilarity (the rest of us). Twins,
right?

Where was I? Right, I sold a book to cousin Joe (not Joseph) in East Elbow.
Now, there's an odd coincidence. Seems I went to school with an auditor in
the East Elbow Tax Department, and she happens to remember that I always said
I wanted to be a writer when I grow up (hey, don't laugh. It's a story,
anything could happen).

Being a curious sort, and having stumbled across Data Guy's brand new
commercial website touting all this brand new author sales information, this
auditor also remembers that cousin Joe (not Joseph) lives in East Elbow, too.

What a coincidence? Right?

So, this curious auditor, knowing that cousin Joe (not Joseph) may just be
the type of relative to have bought a book from your truly, wonders, naturally
enough, if cousin Joe (not Joseph) might have done her duty to the little
(but gorgeous, you should see downtown, the oaks and the old railroad...)
municipality they both know and love.

So, this curious auditor puts down a buck or two at Data Guy's website, and
loe and behold, what does she find?

My name. And my one little sale. Banner year, remember?

And, since she's already got two pieces of puzzle that look like they fit
together, our bright and curious auditor has enough pieces of puzzle to
wander down the hall. That's where East Elbow keeps their Judge.

Judge Reinhold.

What a coincidence, I know!

Any rate, Judge Reinhold is old. He's a little hard of hearing.

But he loves his little town (they've got a nanobrewery!), so when the bright
and curious auditor has a request?

He signs a well-developed request for information (i.e. a warrant, summons,
whatever the form says at the top) on behalf of East Elbow to the mighty
corporation of Amazon.

Which the bright and curious auditor promptly sends off to Amazon. And, since
the request for information comes nice and clean, with all the right fonts,
and, most importantly, Judge Reinhold's signature affixed all nice and pretty
to the bottom, next to the shiny official city seal...

Amazon sends our bright and curious auditor cousin Joe's (not Joseph's) address
and information five minutes later (yeah, it's a story. Just remember: in
principle, any taxing authority where Amazon has a presence has this official
authority. Do you want to believe that, if enough of them start doing it,
Amazon will hold out? Or be able to, if these little warrants come en masse?).

And our bright and curious auditor promptly sends a sales tax request off to
cousin Joe (not Joseph). At which point, she comes knocking on my door, telling
me I owe her fifty cents, and oh by the way this book sucks can I have a beer?

Followed by cousin Joe (Joseph now, keep up) five minutes later, because as
it turns out West Elbow got involved. Because the Amazon tech mis-typed her
email, and East Elbow, West Elbow, who the hell knows the difference anyway?

But the West Elbow auditor, while bright and curious as well, and ready to
retire next year to spend a little time kite fishing a couple thousand miles
south, knows the difference. Doesn't care, and is quite happy to send along
a sales tax request, just in case.

Now, multiply that email by about five billion and twenty (number approximate)
and you'll see why Amazon, at least, might not end up appreciating the
situation that Data Guy's operation has put them in. When they realize it.

ok, so about the Data Guy/Author Earnings thing.

Specifically, this.

I'm agin' it, as the actress said to the bishop. Here's a few thoughts.

1. This isn't publically available data that Data Guy is using. This is data extracted from Amazon's private servers by 3rd party robot web crawlers. If Data Guy were selling this data, with the only difference that Amazon had set their no robots policy strictly enough so that he would have had to have actively cracked through Amazon's web security, then the criminal act would be clearly obvious.

2. A counterfactual. Suppose instead that Statistical Lady (SL) had spent the past couple of years extracting buyer data from Amazon's web servers, and publically analyzing it in general terms. That is, suppose SL had published a series of analyses of buyer data in terms of the average Amazon customer, the anonymous distribution of Amazon customers, and so on.

To this point, Statistical Lady has been proper in treating the data she extracted, randomizing and anonymizing the results so that no individual Amazon customer can be extracted from her analysis. Further, SL has been doing this analysis freely. In effect, SL has been a social data scientist using the data she extracted in a reasonable fair use manner with no possibility of renumeration.

But, now Statistical Lady changes tactics. Now, she sets up a commercial service, and changes her analysis. Now, rather than anonymizing the data, SL is ranking the top 100000 Amazon customers, by pseudonym or fuzzing out the names in public, while at the same time offering to anyone who comes along the opportunity to buy that data, unmodified and in complete, personal detail.

That is, SL now offers to sell to all comers the personal buying habits of every Amazon customer.

Again, at this point, the behavior would be clearly obvious as having crossed the line.

In particular, a customer purchasing from Amazon, whether explicitly or not, whether in black letter law or not, has an expectation that their consumer habits on Amazon should not be available by purchase to third parties. If, for some reason, Amazon's terms of service were to allow them to sell the buying data of individual consumers to anyone with the wherewithal to purchase it, no questions asked, then, whether this action is legal or not, one would expect that Amazon's customers would, within hours, abandon the company completely.

And this is especially important for the non-obvious aspects of the Amazon customer base. Consider what would happen if Amazon offered to sell the equivalent usage data for their Web Services to anyone who wants it. In that case, one would expect that Amazon's Web Services would be bankrupt within hours.

Now, from the counterfactual, it seems clear that Amazon is not likely to be making available their retail customers's buying habits, since whether or not they have a legal right to do so, from a practical business point of view such actions would be insane, in my opinion.

Thus, as a general matter, one would expect that Amazon has a significant interest in insuring that buying data on their servers is considered, as a practical matter, inviolate, protected, and most of all, private.

For every buyer, there must, of course, be a seller. Thus, as a matter of fair trading, if the buyer has a practical expectation of privacy, then so should the seller. Thus, the counterfactual indicates that in the real life example, whatever the practical legal impediments to Data Guy's commercial activities, as an ethical matter, Data Guy has completely crossed the line by selling his data in the way that he has.

The only practical way to thread the needle, in my opinion, is for Data Guy to systematically randomize, anonymize completely, his commerically available data set, in a 3rd party auditable manner. No opt ins, opt outs, nothing. Such things are half-measures, in my opinion, and are more than likely simply a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Aw, crap. One of the things they never tell you, growing up?

Is that age makes it so that you get to watch as your heroes pass from this
world ahead of you, one by one, over and over.

Goodbye, Ursula K. Le Guin. Wherever you go, I hope they've got a good library,
comfortable sofas, and warm tea at hand awaiting you.

Getting back into the swing of things after the holidays, for me at least,
is a bit of challenge this year. That's really kind of odd.

And not. Obviously, there's the immediate, the rough sort of year we went
through. It's natural to have to slog through it.

I'm feeling like I have to work at it more, that's all. Like I'm an old bear
whose hormones aren't quite up to the levels needed to stir himself out of
hibernation one more time.

It could also be that we're having more of a winter this year than last year,
with more cold snaps.

Just part of my rhythm at the moment, I guess. I've got the goods, and the
time and energy. It's just putting them all into the habit of doing, and
doing today a bit more than yesterday.

Such is life sometimes. I've got a couple shorter stories in the Open Wounds
series to finish shepherding through the process, galley review and so on.
They'll be up soon. Then some other stories to begin the process. Links,
more pages for the different vendors where my current stories are available...

Little bit, by little bit.

But most of all, I've got stories to write. There's the work in progress,
where the huntress in the night has just decided to show me what she's
capable of...

The stuff of dreams, the stuff of nightmares.

Not that I have any of this tonight. I just like saying it.

That's what writers work with. It's what I want to work with, when I sit down
to pound the electrons from their writhing nothingness into pixels. Fun
stuff. Heady stuff.

Stuff to be wary of? Maybe, sometimes. To approach it with some sense of
confusion? All too often. To worry I have such poor skills?

Ok, let's not get too far into the weeds.

Besides, it's the start of the New Year, by the way the winter calendar
turns. We should be thinking of wonder, and new things aborning?

Then again, it is winter, here where I write. Here 'neath the dark of night,
the longest nights. And the grip of the cold.

Maybe we should be concerned about what things are born, here in the dark...